1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hinge for pivotally joining two members such as a door in a frame, between shelves or the like and particularly to an adjustable unitary hinge which is suitable for adjustably mounting a door in a cabinet frame, such as in KD furniture or the like. The hinge is preferably made of plastic material, such as polyethylene, but is may be made from any suitable material such as plastic or metal.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Hinges are the most common and convenient means for pivotally mounting one member to another so that one member, such as a door, can be swung with respect to the other. Such hinges commonly take the form of brackets which are secured to the members and are joined by a pintle journaled in the brackets, such as the hinges on a door and associated door frame.
Similarly, hinges have been long used on doors for furniture such as cabinets wherein the door and cabinet frame are joined by a hinge which includes at least a pair of brackets, one attached to each member joined by a pintle or hinge pin. In some furniture hardware, the brackets are carefully designed for their aesthetic appearance.
With the advent of "KD" or knockdown furniture, that is furniture such as cabinets which are shipped to a consumer in unassembled condition for assembly by the consumer, it has become standard practice for the manufacturer to prefabricate most or all holes in the furniture members so that the customer must merely align the frame members and, using simple tools, such as a screwdriver, assemble the furniture. The assembly is completed using are packaged hardware such as hinges, pulls and wood or machine screws.
In the case of KD furniture such as cabinets with doors, a customer is required to properly align and fit cabinet doors in the cabinet frame using prepackaged hinges. Where the holes for the hinges have been preformed or predrilled, it is sometimes difficult for the customer to install the door hinges in the frame using the predrilled holes such that the door swings properly in the frame and properly closes neatly and tightly without damaging the cabinet frame or the hinges. In the worst cases where the proper door fit is impossible to obtain, the customer may be required to fill the predrilled holes with a cabinet filling compound, such as putty or epoxy resin, and redrill the holes in the frame and/or door to achieve the proper fit and door swing.
The difficulty in aligning a furniture door in a frame properly usually is attributable to the fact that the door cannot be easily horizontally aligned with respect to the frame because the predrilled holes in the furniture are not properly aligned with those in the door. This is particularly true in the case of recently introduced KD furniture, such as cabinets wherein the door is designed to be installed in the frame using hardware which joins the top and bottom edges of the door to the inside top and bottom edges of the cabinet frame, as contrasted with furniture which uses conventional bracket and pintle hardware on the faces or vertical edges of the door and frame.
To overcome the problem of aligning the door with a frame, hardware manufacturers have designed several types of adjustable hinges. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,313,064 discloses an adjustable hinge which provides independent vertical and horizontal adjustment of the door on the frame. The hinge is complex and requires separate adjustments in order to achieve vertical and horizontal adjustment.
Another form of complex adjustable hinge is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,150. This hinge is basically the bracket and pintle type hinge, except that the bracket journals are threaded to cooperate with threaded bushings on the hinge for vertical adjustment. The bore of the bushing is eccentrically drilled relative to the bushing diameter so that when the bushing is turned over the pintle, a degree of horizontal adjustment is obtained. Alternatively or additionally, the pin may be mounted eccentrically to obtain horizontal adjustment of a door mounted on the hinge.
A third form of adjustable hinge which is also complex in that it contains a plurality of parts is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,708. That hinge is particularly designed for cabinets but attaches to the cabinet side wall.
Each of these hinges consists of a plurality of separate elements and requires individual adjustments which take time and at least some mechanical ability.